Do It Yourself?
Theme of the Week: Graded on the Curve?
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
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Key Bible Verse: "I warn you—unless you obey God better than the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees do, you can't enter the Kingdom of Heaven at all!" (Matthew 5:20). Bonus Reading: Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28
Admitting that God doesn't grade actions on a curve is a good start; but the same goes for thoughts! That's the thrust of [today's Key Bible Verse]. As zealous law keepers, the scribes and the Pharisees were considered shoo-ins for heaven. But Jesus stressed that if keeping the law doesn't involve more than actions, it's not kept at all.
Jesus declared that murder is more than an action. "If you are angry with someone," he said, "you are subject to judgment!" Later [in today's Bonus Reading], he continued, "the law of Moses says, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
Living by the law, Jesus taught, is an all-or-nothing deal. Few commit physical murder, but everyone get's angry. Few commit physical adultery, but everyone admires the opposite sex.
Only one person who walked the face of the Earth was able to keep the entire law: Jesus. Thankfully, Christ fulfilled the requirements of the law for us. We're not only reconciled to God by his death, but we're "delivered from eternal punishment by his life" (Romans 5:10).
—David Rich in 7 Biblical Truths You Won't Hear in Church
My Response: What good actions have I failed to do, or done from bad motives?
Thought to Apply: One leak will sink a ship, and one sin will destroy a sinner. —John Bunyan (English nonconformist minister)
Adapted from 7 Biblical Truths You Won't Hear in Church (Harvest, 2006) by permission.
Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Intensify my grasp of your holiness this week so that I can begin to comprehend the cost of sacrificing your Son.
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